1. Field
The present invention generally relates to techniques for controlling the operation of a computer system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus that prolongs the remaining useful life of a power supply in a computer system.
2. Related Art
The failure of a power supply in a computer system can cause the entire computer system to fail. Typically, in order to reduce the chance that a power supply failure will result in a failure of the entire computer system, some computer systems are designed to include at least one extra power supply. With the redundancy provided by an extra power supply, one power supply can fail and a service call can be scheduled to replace it while the computer system keeps operating. However, even the failure of a single power supply in a system with redundant power supplies can potentially cause problems if the logic removing the failed power supply from the computer system induces electrical transients.
Additionally, the computer system may still fail if a second power supply fails before the first failed power supply can be replaced. For mission-critical computer systems, even this small chance that two power supplies may fail can be too high. Also, although predicting the remaining useful life of the power supplies in the computer system may help a computer system operator to determine how quickly a service call is needed, even this knowledge may not help to avoid a failure of the computer system if the service call or required spare parts cannot be obtained in time.
Hence, what is needed is a method and system that prolongs a remaining useful life of a power supply in a computer system without the above-described problems.